Haberdashery adds masculine flair to downtown shopping

Felix T. Jacks is one of the newest stores in the Wimberley Valley that is opened to the public.

An independently owned store, Felix T. Jacks is a men’s haberdashery retail store that offers a variety of items, from clothes, paintings, and other goods.

Started by Heath Tolleson and Kristin Dermot, the shop showcases independent companies who make their products all from scratch.

“We are about the process, the people, everything that goes into that garment,” Heath Tolleson said. “95% of everything we have is hand cut, sewn, and even grown here in the US… The shop is named after my grandad, and it’s just a nice tribute to my family and my partner (Christine) who in a past life had an art gallery up in Columbia, Missouri. So that’s where the art comes from, but we are excited to be here in the community. We are excited to show people some independent brands that are doing a lot of good for the Texoma fashion world.”

For Dermot, coming to Wimberley was a no brainer.

“The short answer is that I consider myself very creative and sell fashion,” Dermot said. “I’m also an entrepreneur , and I have to count them all up, but I’ve created several different businesses and startups. So when Heath had come up to me and had this dream and idea, it was just a knee jerk reaction honestly for me to be like ‘Yeah let’s do that’. So when we did the research for this, everything started to make sense as far as the theme and the ability to just survive. It was kind of a no-brainer.”

As for the paintings that reside in the shop, they are all made by one artist Dermot used to represent when she owned her own art gallery.

“I used to be an art broker and represented the works of that artist,” Dermot said. “Since I’ve been involved, the artist has been deceased so his family came in contact with me to represent the work and when I shut down my gallery due to moving I handed off the collection to somebody I knew locally to Echo Gallery in Blanco but I said ‘Wait let me showcase some of his work’ and they were excited about collaborating since they were familiar with the artist. There are a lot of connections there to exhibit in the mix.”

Despite the variety of items in the store, it is the synergy of both Dermot and Tolleson that make the shop work out.

“I feed off of Kristin’s methods and creativity,” Tolleson said “You can call it a joint venture but at the end of the day, it was just her ability to find that nat ural flow and make it seem effortless. Since I’m more of the garment and clothing side, the balance needs to be the art needs to reflect the clothing as well as the clothing needing to reflect the art. Because of our personal connection we are able to go in on that.”

“For me it’s about not overthinking things,” Dermot said. “It’s just about being cohesive, rather going with the flow, and you let the artistic vision run away itself. When you bring it together you don’t know how people are going to respond, but it was just natural. We just brought what we had to the table and said ‘Let’s throw this in the mixer and see what happens.’ I fully believe that in business instead of trying to recreate the wheel or see what the other guy is doing, it’s let’s do what we want to do and let the business have it’s own natural vibe then see how people respond to it.”

In the end, Felix T. Jacks isn’t trying to sell you something, but rather make you feel at home in the Wimberley Valley.

“A huge part of this is that we were trying to set this up like our home,” Dermot said. “Not like a home where you can sleep in, but rather this is our space. It’s not just a store, and not a place where we get you to buy as many pairs of jeans as possible. We just want this store to be like home, and how do you do that? By importing yourself and everyone you have to offer, put it together and hope it works.”

“We want someone to come in and make a simple connection,” Tolleson added. Whether it’s with a piece of clothing, a piece of pottery, art or whatever, it’s about connecting with someone.”